Free Stock Photo Websites For Designers

In this post, we are going to get you acquainted with the best Free Stock Photo Websites that are popularly used by designers in their projects. Before we refer back to them, we would like to discuss a few things about stock photos and why they are beneficial to use instead of hiring a professional photographer. We will also be talking about reliable places to find free stock photos so as to minimize the cost of the projects. Besides, there will be some ideas on stock photography license types and terms and conditions relating to them.

What Are Stock Photos?

Stock photos are the collection of photos on diverse number of subjects like landscapes, nature, popular places, and animals etc. as well as on different themes, emotions, abstract concepts, color etc. that are mainly shot by professional photographers. The photos are generally licensed under specific terms, and shared, especially through websites, to the users. The end users can utilize them as resources in their projects under attributed license terms, which might often limit their personal or commercial use for re-distribution, print or other purpose.

It has been a long period since personal professional photography emerged as the trend worldwide. As a result, the collection and distribution of photos, taken and licensed by professional photographers, through websites has developed as an evolving industry. Each day thousands of photographers are contributing millions of photos to the several stock photo websites, while millions of users are grabbing them for free or buying the premium ones for their personal or commercial use.

The Benefits of Using Free Stock Photo Websites

The importance of using appropriate images in design or creative projects is beyond question. But it is often costly for an individual or a company to hire, if not troublesome to find, an expert professional to shoot a few perfect photos for the on-going projects. In this case, they can avail the huge collection of photos stocked in various popular websites and make use of the proper ones in a very cost-effective way.

Though there are terms and conditions for use of the images according to different license types, there are also convenient membership plans that allow them to make the best use of the opportunities available. Besides, there are websites that offer huge collection of high definition premium quality photos for free use under creative commons license.

Where To Find Free Stock Photos?

With the blessing of internet, the opportunities to get free stuffs like photos are endless. There are numerous popular websites that only deal with free stock photos with a few specific license terms or credit attribution, whereas some websites might just require free subscription to them. Still, there are a huge number of free stock photo websites that offer totally free high quality stock images for download with no limited-use license or credit attribution at all. So there is actually nothing to worry about when it comes to find the perfect photos for your projects for free.

What Are The Best Free Stock Photo Websites?

As we talked earlier, the trend of professional photography is developing day by day. So, the industry of websites providing free stock photos is also advancing so as to get in touch with the maximum number of audiences. These agencies are also evolving for the better in terms of service and business strategies. So, there came out a number of website agencies that earned the trust and love of their users and grew extremely popular over time.

20+ Best Free Stock Photo Websites For Designers

Below is the list of 20+ Best Free Stock Photo Websites with a brief introduction that designers often get back to to find appropriate pictures for their projects. We suggest you check out license terms before using them. However, the list is randomly ordered and no ranking, priority or preferences considered.

Unsplash is one of the most common free stock image sharing sites that allow you to use photos for free under Creative Commons Zero license, which means you can copy, edit or distribute them for personal or commercial purpose. One does not even have to ask permission or attribute any credit to the photographer or Unsplash.

FreeStocks is another free stock photo website providing images under the same Creative Commons Zero license. So, you can personally or commercially use them in your projects for free. They can even be copied or modified to serve your purpose. However, any further selling or redistributing is no permitted.

Picography provides loads of images all available for free download. You can use the pictures however you like. However, the images are not supposed to be advertised or attributed as your own work. The free stock photo website offers images that are also under Creative Commons Public Domain CC0 license.

MyStock photos are licensed under CC0 which allows you to use them personally or commercially in your projects. Copying, distributing, or further modification is allowed and no permission or credit attribution is required.

Picjumbo is another free stock photo website having huge collection of high quality photos that are licensed under Creative Commons Zero. According to the license terms using, copying, distributing and modifications are permissible.

Pixabay is just another free stock photo sharing website allowing the users to download and use high quality images for free. CC0 license further allows them to copy, edit, and redistribute images without permission.

FreerangeStock offers lots of high quality stock photos that can be downloaded and used for personal and commercial purpose. However, the free stock photo providing website has its own license terms that can be read here.

FoodiesFeed is a great source for free food stock images. The website holds a huge collection of natural looking food photos which can be downloaded for free and used in the personal or commercial projects. There is a pretty great story about how Jakub, owner of the FoodiesFeed, launched the website and developed the site to this state.

MorgueFile is another renowned free stock photo website offering a huge collection of high definition photos for personal or commercial use. The images are contributed by thousands of amateur and professional creatives. A detailed license terms and conditions can be read here.

StartupStockPhotos offers digital images for almost everyone from startups, designers, developers, bloggers, and publishers to creative professionals. Though the website offers free stock photos for personal or commercial use, there are some detailed terms and conditions of use.